A Claude Monet painting of his wife Camille reclining in a flower-strewn meadow sold tonight at Christie’s International in London for 11.2 million pounds ($16.2 million) with fees.

It was bought by a Paris-based representative of Christie’s, taking instructions over the telephone.

The 2-foot 8-inch wide canvas, dating from 1876, had been estimated by the auction house to fetch 15 million pounds, making it the most valuable estimated work offered in London’s February series of Impressionist and modern art sales. Its final price was less than a bronze version of Degas’s best-known “Little Dancer” sculpture that sold yesterday at Sotheby’s for 13.3 million pounds.

The Monet’s price history reflects historical demand from art collectors. It had last appeared on the auction market in November 1999 at Sotheby’s New York, where it sold for $15.4 million.

In June 1988, at the height of the last art market boom, the painting sold for 14.3 million pounds with fees at Sotheby’s in London.

The Monet was part of a group of four Impressionist-period works offered at Christie’s by the same European seller. Among these was Henri Toulouse-Lautrec’s 1895 oil-on-board work, “L’abandon (Les deux amies),” showing two girls reclining on a bed in a brothel. Carrying a low estimate of 5 million pounds, it sold tonight for 6.2 million pounds with fees, also to the same Christie’s representative from Paris. In May 2000, it sold at Sotheby’s at its main New York saleroom for $9.4 million.